Ding, ding, ding!

18 Oct Ding, ding, ding!

Ding, ding, ding!

“American workers quit 4.2 million jobs in August, but one type of employee appears to be getting cold feet about switching employers or quitting to take a career timeout: office workers.

Worries about slowdowns, such as Amazon’s recently announced hiring freeze for retail corporate workers, may temper workers’ confidence about how quickly they could find a new role. And while layoffs in August remained near prepandemic lows, workers’ fears about an uncertain future may be growing amid a spate of recent high-profile layoff plans at Goldman Sachs, Gap and Meta.

‘White-collar workers are becoming more conservative, whereas food-service workers are still quitting and finding higher wages,’ said Andrew Flowers, a labor economist at Appcast, a recruitment software company. The Wall Street Journal”
–https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6983756387461820416/

Called that one!

I’ve said repeatedly on this blog and on my podcast that this is the case. The Great Resignation is toast. White collar office workers are NOT hippity-hopping across the market now the same way they did a year ago. Retail, hospitality, gen labor? Yeah, prolly so. But most office workers aren’t.

The WSJ article referenced is titled, “People Still Quit Jobs, but More Office Workers Are Staying Put.” (https://www.wsj.com/articles/people-continue-to-quit-jobs-but-more-office-workers-are-starting-to-stay-put-11665027589) The byline reads, “Jitters about a cooling labor market appear to be eroding some professionals’ confidence.”

WELL NO DUH!

This is like the political phrase, “The economy, stupid.” No one wants to be left holding the bag. Whether that’s an overpriced poo-poo house at a 7% interest rate or leaping to a job that turns out not to be secure.